Whether You Want To Be Or Not
by Arianwen P.F. Everett
Summary: 23 years after the end of the Great War, Brienne of Tarth helps a sixteen year old girl, Nomina, prepare for her wedding.


Authoress' Note: This is a morbid, stand alone, vignette about how even the noblest soul can sour when stripped of their own agency. I was recently re-watching the purple wedding, namely the confrontation between Cersei and Brienne, and I realized that I, and many fanfic authors I've read, had it all wrong. Cersei isn't worried about Jaime having strayed. This isn't two women fighting over a man. This is Cersei boiling with jealousy over how Brienne is able to make her own choices in life, while she is about to be ripped away from her children and all the ladder climbing at court that she's put nearly two decades into, only to be stuck in a second unwanted marriage. So I decided to explore how Brienne would deal with more traditional demands, like the ones Cersei has faced, forced on her after the Great War ended, and how those demands might transform her into something closer to Jaime's twin. I hope you all enjoy.

Whether You Want To Be Or Not

By Arianwen P.F. Everett

Brienne of Tarth sighed as she walked into Nomina's bedchamber and found the girl only half dressed for her wedding. "You plan to enter the sept in your small clothes?"

"What do you care?" the young woman of sixteen years retorted bitterly, not moving a muscle towards covering herself.

"I'm sorry if you're displeased with the prospect of marrying Lord Vyrwel, but your father believes he's a good match," Brienne reminded the girl as she removed her gold and white gown from its sewing dummy and laid it out on the bed.

"He's fifty-five years old and a notorious lech; how can he be a good match?" Nomina spat back, repulsed at the idea of a life spent with the man who'd soon be waiting in the sept for her.

"Sadly, despite Queen Daenerys' reforms allowing women to become maesters and knights, we still have little choice in whom we marry, so get dressed," Brienne returned, not interested in hearing the girl's whining. She hated Daenerys Targaryen and being forced to praise her for Nomina's benefit still irked Brienne regardless of the many years that had passed since the silver-haired queen had wronged her.

"Why doesn't Kastaria have to marry? She's four years older than I am," Nomina grumbled at the unfairness of it all. Slowly though, she picked up her custom made dress and slipped it on. Immediately her maid came over to cinch up the back and the girl straightened to let her do her job.

"Kastaria is a Storm, a bastard, which means her marriage prospects are limited," Brienne returned, again resenting Queen Daenerys for compelling this lie.

She and Jaime had indeed married in the Manderly Sept at New Castle during the Great War. King Jon Snow had urged Lord Manderly to invite them to say their vows there as a sign of gratitude to her for saving his sister, Sansa, from Ramsey Bolton, and though the Lord of White Harbor hadn't particularly liked opening his sacred sphere to a Lannister, especially one that had caused so much trouble for the North in previous years, House Manderly practiced the Faith of the Seven and could not refuse. The Book of the Father clearly stated that all who'd been named in the light of the Seven were brothers and sisters, and Lord Manderly took his faith and his allegiance to the King of the North most seriously.

Yet the King of the North and her beloved Jaime had been killed in the final battle against the Night King, and Jaime's brother, Tyrion, had convinced Brienne to give Jaime's posthumously-born daughter a bastard name in order to keep her safe. If she were Jaime Lannister's child, Queen Daenerys would certainly keep a sharp eye on the girl and find some way to limit her life choices, probably by forcing a very unequal marriage on the girl as soon as she was flowered. Tyrion had doubted his queen would kill the child, as she'd officially pardoned Jaime for her father's slaying, but she'd find a way to make Kastaria pay for the sins of her father and grandfather, regardless of her formal pardon. The Dragon Queen could be vindictive when things hit a bit too close to home, and Tyrion had loved his niece too much to let her be sacrificed to what he perceived as Daenerys' only major flaw.

As Brienne of Tarth's bastard, the girl barely registered for the Dragon Queen, even if it were common knowledge that Jaime Lannister had sired her. In Daenerys mind, the unattractive and gullible Brienne had been seduced by sweet words and a pretty face and the Kingslayer had likely taken her maidenhead with little care to her future because that was the kind of immoral and selfish man Tywin Lannister's eldest son would have had to have been. Though Tyrion hated allowing his dear, deceased brother's memory to be so defiled, it was better than watching his living niece suffer, so he allowed the misconception to flourish.

From Tyrion's point of view, Daenerys was still the best ruler to come along in nearly a century and the fact that she used her power to force unwanted marriages on nobles in order to ensure her political aims was a minor concession. Heck, he himself had been compelled into a marriage with the twenty-six year old widow, Sopheena Tyrell, one of the last of her family, who'd remained with her ailing mother-in-law at her marital home with her first husband when the Sept of Baelor had been destroyed by Wildfire and Highgarden stripped from Olenna Tyrell by the crown.

Yet, for Brienne, being ordered to marry a Tyroshi noble's third son whose father had helped Daenerys keep the city of Meereen from returning to the control of slavers was a deep betrayal from a woman she'd believed would one day 'break the wheel' as the monarch herself had put it. She'd indeed limited the power of the major houses, but not by winning the people. Instead she'd done as her Valyrian ancestors had three centuries earlier by bringing fire and blood, then paying off those foreign sellswords and minor nobles who'd helped her conquer with advantageous marriages to Westerosi families that were given no say in the matter. She'd not broken the wheel, she'd just enlarged it to crush everyone who wasn't a Targaryen more equally.

Now Brienne was extremely grateful for Tyrion's advice along with the diamonds, gold, and nameday gifts he'd sent to Tarth for her 'bastard' child's maintenance. Yet upon hearing of the marriage that would be forced upon her, Brienne had realized that this Tyroshi noble's sons would inherit Evenfall Hall and the title of Evenstar of Tarth before her own daughter, Jaime's daughter, regardless of whether or not Kastaria was trueborn. Thankfully Lady Sansa had come to her rescue, much as her deeply-missed mother had once done after King Renly's murder, and offered Brienne a path forward, namely that the honorable Brienne of Tarth should become a bigamist.

The scheme had been simple. Lady Sansa had invited Brienne back to Winterfell for a visit, which she'd accepted and Queen Daenerys had agreed to so long as Brienne vowed to return to marry her betrothed as planned. Then, in the Stark's Godswood, Brienne had wed Ser Rodrick Brent, a widower farmer with three sons and two daughters, who'd been knighted by King Jon Snow after saving his life in one of the early battles of the Great War. Like Brienne he'd had no desire to remarry, but unlike her he was too lowborn for Daenerys Targaryen to notice.

Then, after spending a month at Winterfell, where the union of convenience was consummated, Brienne and her three year old daughter had returned to Tarth as promised to marry the Tyroshi. Brienne had even requested a Tyroshi wedding as she couldn't bring herself to take vows in front of the Seven. Thankfully her betroths' three-headed god only demanded that she show up, as the bride didn't speak during the ceremony, and for her daughter's chance at one day taking her rightful place as the Evenstar, show up Brienne did. The only joy she'd gotten out of her secretly illegal third marriage was the knowledge that the son and daughter she'd born for her Tyroshi husband were bastards and unable to take what rightfully would belong to Kastaria and her descendants, once Brienne met the Stranger.

This was not to say that she was cruel to her Tyroshi husband's two children, or even to him. She treated them with the formal respect guest right demanded, but she had no love for any of them and wouldn't pretend to, not even on Nomina's wedding day. "I'm sorry you aren't pleased with your father's choice, but in fairness, he's made it quite clear that he won't continue to support you if you refuse to marry Lord Vyrwel."

"And you would never try to change his mind, would you, Mother?" Nomina reacted, venom dripping from her painted lips as she said that final word.

"No. He's your father. It's not my place," Brienne returned, as the girl had her new necklace placed around her throat by her maid, and she shook her dark brown curls to ensure her updo stayed pinned as she moved.

Turning to face Brienne's implacable features, Nomina searched her eyes to find a single spark of affection as she stood full grown in her wedding dress before the woman who'd given birth to her. Finding nothing but resignation and attention to duty, Nomina sighed a final, freeing exhalation of acceptance. "Then I guess I'm ready."


End file.
